Leader Still waiting for peaceAnnapolis: Serious negotiations do not normally take place at international conferences. They happen before or after them. If negotiations beforehand have been fruitful, a conference is a venue to publicise and formalise what has been agreed

EditorialForwardEhud Olmert and Tzipi Livni have come a long way from their revisionist world view, on which they were raised and which they sold to their public during their days in Likud, all the way to the speeches they made at Annapolis.

Is the financial world about to collapse? You'd think so if you listened to the financiers Anatole Kaletsky

Syriana By: Michael Young | The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) Foreign capitals are increasingly engaging Syrian President Bashar Assad, whether on Lebanon's future or on regional peace talks, as Syria's inclusion in yesterday's Annapolis conference shows. If this engagement is done clumsily -- as it has been so far -- we will soon be reading the Cedar Revolution's obituary

Asia Times White House squabble on releasing Iranians A behind-the-scenes row in the Bush administration played a part in the decision to release nine Iranian prisoners. Cheney and Petraeus, US commander in Iraq, took a hit, but administration hardliners continue to oppose any further move to reduce tensions with Iran. - Gareth Porter

Selling the US by the dollar The US$7.5 billion that the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is paying to buy a 4.9% stake in Citigroup begins the process of selling off America's remarkably innovative and profitable financial system. The country will now be paying a rent, in the form of the profits accruing to Abu Dhabi and the other foreign buyers that must surely follow its lead, equal to what it once collected for itself. - Julian Delasantellis

Inside Pakistan's Drive to Guard A-BombsPakistan's nuclear-security web involves a battery of checks aimed at rooting out human foibles that might lead one to betray national secrets. But the new program probes most deeply into degrees of religious fervor.

UPI Commentary: Osama's echo chamber By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE What do the Archbishop of Canterbury, Patrick J. Buchanan, and Osama bin Laden have in common? All three believe America is on a path to national suicide.

Asia Times How you helped build Pakistan's bomb Pakistan's "Islamic bomb" - an arsenal of as many as 120 nuclear weapons - is not an indigenous product, but a little bit American, Canadian, Swiss, German, Dutch, British, Japanese and even Russian

FT Clan with a planWhile the ex-KGB occupants of the Kremlin find ways to retain influence, voters are content with the stability they offer

Lebanese rivals turn to army chiefPoliticians from the ruling anti-Syrian March 14 bloc reverse their position on General Suleiman, army chief, making him the frontrunner for Lebanon’s vacant presidency

StratforIraq: The Arbil-Baghdad Divide”…just as the Kurds have a vested interest in keeping Kurdistan in a legal gray area, so too do they have an interest in keeping the legal niceties of Iraq itself obfuscated. While Iraq remains in legal limbo, the degree to which Arbil exercises local policy control is not a headline issue. Luckily for the Kurds of Iraq, that limbo shows no sign of resolving itself. After all, even within the Iraqi Shiite community there are divisions over everything from the level of power to grant the central government to the role of Iran -- a level of continual confusion that allows Arbil to quietly proceed with building de facto independence, no matter what Shahristani says.”

Kurdish OilDemocracyArsenal “According to one person at the meeting, the officials warned that some of the blocs being offered by the Kurdish government lay outside its territory and might extend into Turkey or Iran.”

For Musharraf, Reduced Power as the PresidentResigning as Pakistan’s army chief will leave Pervez Musharraf with vastly reduced powers and Washington with a far more complex Pakistan to deal with in its fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban

Leader Still waiting for peaceAnnapolis: Serious negotiations do not normally take place at international conferences. They happen before or after them. If negotiations beforehand have been fruitful, a conference is a venue to publicise and formalise what has been agreed

Asia Times White House squabble on releasing IraniansA behind-the-scenes row in the George W Bush administration played a part in the decision to release nine Iranian prisoners. Vice President Dick Cheney and General David Petraeus, US commander in Iraq, took a hit, but administration hardliners continue to oppose any further move to reduce tensions with Iran. - Gareth Porter

Selling the US by the dollar The US$7.5 billion that the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is paying to buy a 4.9% stake in Citigroup begins the process of selling off America's remarkably innovative and profitable financial system. The country will now be paying a rent, in the form of the profits accruing to Abu Dhabi and the other foreign buyers that must surely follow its lead, equal to what it once collected for itself. - Julian Delasantellis

How you helped build Pakistan's bomb Pakistan's "Islamic bomb" - an arsenal of as many as 120 nuclear weapons - is not an indigenous product, but a little bit American, Canadian, Swiss, German, Dutch, British, Japanese and even Russian. It is impossible to launch a war against such an underground global business, which makes nonsense of the George W Bush administration's urge to militarize anti-proliferation efforts that have been at the heart of its post-September 11, 2001, planning. - Catherine Collins and Douglas Frantz

Hello to the Euro, Goodby to the Dollar By: Gwynne Dyer | The Japan Times Bush administration blunders have probably landed a fatal blow to the dollar's reign as global reserve currency, but there won't be change overnight

From Business Week, an article on Brazil, the new oil superpower: State-run Petrobras' "monstrous" new oil find has wide-ranging implications for the South American country, the oil majors, oil services providers, and beyond.

The discovery of a huge new oil field has the potential to transform Brazil into a global energy powerhouse and to reshape the politics of this energy-starved continent.

Iraq a loud no-show at talks Faced with a difficult political and military insurgency at home, and having to balance competing sectarian and diplomatic demands, the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki decided it did not have the time or resources to attend Mr. Bush's high-stakes gathering.

Spreading Prosperity By: Sunny Hundal | The GuardianDubai's enthusiastic embrace of capitalism, which some find disconcerting, is exactly what the Middle East needs.

EditorialForwardEhud Olmert and Tzipi Livni have come a long way from their revisionist world view, on which they were raised and which they sold to their public during their days in Likud, all the way to the speeches they made at Annapolis.

Benn Only Bush canWith all due respect to the Bush-Rice success at Annapolis, their real test is still before them, and it all depends on their determination and perseverance.

Segev The 29th of November, then and nowThere was a time when Israelis and Palestinians refused to speak to one another. All that is behind us. Most Israelis and most Palestinians agree in principle to dividing the country between them.

Three Wise Men in the East By: Jean Pisani-Ferry | The Wall Street Journal (subscription required)Even if the Europeans ultimately succeed in convincing the Beijing leadership that China has to take its part in the global monetary rebalancing, there will be a price to pay for it.

FT Modest progress at the Beijing summit By focusing on specific trade and exchange rate problems, China and the EU have created mechanisms that may stop their relationship deteriorating

Chavez is too shrewd to sever his U.S. lifeline, but Venezuelans should stop him now.

Putin at center of Russian electionsPutin has transformed the election into a vote of confidence on his leadership and on the nation's economic recovery, and he is throwing in the full weight of his government and party machine.

Putin Can't Run for Third Term as Loophole Closes By: Henry Meyer and Sebastian Allison | Bloomberg NewsUnder Russian law, the publication in the official government daily, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, of the date for the presidential election means that Putin can no longer step down and run again. The Moscow-based newspaper said that tomorrow's edition has already gone to press and carries the official announcement

Unmasking President Putin's Grandiose Myth By: Anders Aslund | The Moscow Times Russia's outstanding achievement is that its gross domestic product has increased six fold from $200 billion in 1999 to $1.2 trillion this year, but this is primarily a result of the market reforms undertaken in the 1990s.

Russia Lashes Out at the U.S. for Stepping Back By: Sergey Strokan | Kommersant Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the United States as he came to take part in a Middle East forum in Annapolis and accused America of making “a step backwards” in the bilateral relations

Silencing the Critics By: Katrina Vanden Heuvel | International Herald TribuneWith Russia's parliamentary elections set for Sunday and the pro-Kremlin United Russia party expected to win an overwhelming majority in the voting, President Vladimir Putin has intensified attacks on his opponents -- most recently, accusing them of being in the pocket of Western governments.

Inside Pakistan's Drive to Guard A-BombsPakistan's nuclear-security web involves a battery of checks aimed at rooting out human foibles that might lead one to betray national secrets. But the new program probes most deeply into degrees of religious fervor.

Saudi Arabia surprised the U.S. by returning ex-Prime Minister Sharif to Pakistan Sunday, an official said. Musharraf had tried to block the move.

Syriana By: Michael Young | The Wall Street Journal (subscription required)Foreign capitals are increasingly engaging Syrian President Bashar Assad, whether on Lebanon's future or on regional peace talks, as Syria's inclusion in yesterday's Annapolis conference shows. If this engagement is done clumsily -- as it has been so far -- we will soon be reading the Cedar Revolution's obituary

COMMENT: Be thankful for canny Arab wealth The Gulf states are buying in expertise in the form of expatriate professionals from consulting and financial firms. It makes sense for the Gulf governments to invest their financial holdings into a variety of assets and to take risk, writes John Gapper

Clan with a planWhile the ex-KGB occupants of the Kremlin find ways to retain influence, voters are content with the stability they offer

Lebanese rivals turn to army chiefPoliticians from the ruling anti-Syrian March 14 bloc reverse their position on General Suleiman, army chief, making him the frontrunner for Lebanon’s vacant presidency

France burns again After a Paris suburb was again set ablaze by rioters, the government got tough on what it regarded as criminality masquerading as protest

Saudis hold 200 suspected militants Saudi Arabia says it has detained more than 200 suspected militants, including a cell that had been planning an attack on an installation in an oil-rich eastern province

Markets rebound as Fed hints at rate cut Stocks surged after Federal Reserve vice-chairman Don Kohn dropped what investors saw as a clear hint that the US central bank was ready to cut interest rates again next month unless market conditions improve

A date for lifting emergency rule could come Thursday, when Musharraf is sworn in to a new term as civilian president

Grooming the Next Ahmad Chalabi By: Alan Weisman | Los Angeles TimesRichard Perle was the most prominent and aggressive advocate of Chalabi, dubbed the "Jay Gatsby of Iraq" for his social life and financial scandals, as the leader of a new Iraq. That effort collapsed when the Iraqi people, finally given a chance to vote in January 2005, did not award Chalabi's party a single seat in the new parliament.

Give Venezuela Credit By: Angelo Rivero | Los Angeles TimesU.S. policymakers and pundits have warned that a set of constitutional reforms being considered in Venezuela are but a step toward dictatorship. A little calm, and context, is in order. Since President Hugo Chavez's first election in 1998 and his most recent reelection in 2006, Venezuela has undergone a dramatic revolution in peace and democracy

H16American Politics

G.O.P. Rivals Trade Jabs in Debate The Republican candidates confronted each other in testy encounters that reflected the wide-open nature of the race in the final sprint toward the Iowa caucuses.

Analysis: New Internet security threats - A new survey of Internet security threats says the biggest problem faced by U.S. companies and government agencies is the growing sophistication of cyber-criminals and spies, who are making increasing use of highly targeted social engineering techniques known as "spear phishing" and exploiting holes in custom-built Web sites.

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